This invention relates to novel methods and compositions for preventing, eliminating and/or controlling flea and tick infestation in animals, particularly household pets.
Flea and tick infestation of household pets is a perennial and often frustrating problem to pet owners.
A wide variety of products are commercially available for the treatment of fleas including spray, dips, powders, shampoos and the like which are effective in the elimination of fleas and ticks from household pets.
However, pets are readily reinfested by fleas and ticks after treatment with the above-noted products simply by returning to a flea infested environment or contact with flea infested animals.
It has been proposed to provide long term protection against flea and tick infestation by attaching to the animal insecticide, holders adapted to hold and apply liquid insecticides to the animals coat, i.e. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,306,076 and 3,687,114. It has also been proposed to impregnate porous metal pendants or the like with insecticides which will vaporize when attached to the animal's collar and kill fleas in the surrounding area, i.e. U.S. Pat. No. 2,661,238.
It is now well established practice in the pet care industry to obtain controlled or sustained release of an insecticide system by incorporation of the insecticide into a polymeric system. A pesticide dispersed in a polymeric system is desirably released by diffusion or by plasticization and/or swelling of the polymer membrane.
In more recent times, collars have been provided for placement around the animal's neck, which are designed to provide continuous protection over a period of time. The collars are natural or synthetic materials impregnated with insecticides in powder or liquid form, which insecticides continually migrate to the collar surface and spread over the surface of the animal's skin, during the effective life of the collar, and kill fleas and ticks upon contact in the neck area of the animal, when the pests migrate towards the animal's head or the pesticide may vaporize and provide an insecticidal fog in the environment adjacent to the animal's hair shafts and skin. Representative of such collars are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,416.
It has also been proposed to provide adherent, controlled release pesticide compositions which may be sprayed on an animal's coat and which provide a sustained killing effect over the useful life of the compositions, i.e. U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,904. However, such compositions do not leave the animal's coat in a soft natural condition.